This sexist whopper out of good-old-boy Mississippi Governor (and McCain pal) Haley Barbour’s mouth is breathtaking:
“My wife loves her because…she doesn’t have a chip on her shoulder like some women politicians, she is very ‘normal’—she doesn’t have to tell you how smart she is. But she is a bonafide energy expert...Sarah Palin knows more about energy policy than the other three put together.”
Palin wouldn’t have much work to do in foreign policy as Vice President, Barbour added, but just like Mississippi is more “sensitive” to hurricanes, for example, than Kansas, Alaska might be more “sensitive,” he went on, to our “Cold War opponent” Russia by being closer to its border.
Uh, no, she doesn’t have to tell us how smart she is, governor. She’s made it crystal clear every time she opens her piehole. Is it me or is the IQ level of these GOP talking heads dropping moment by moment in honor of Bible Spice?
Energy expert? Let’s go back to that video I posted the other night, Gov. Barbour…
“Oil and coal…it’s a fungible commodity and they don’t flag the molecules where it’s going and where it’s not. In the sense of the Congress today they know that there are very, very hungry domestic markets that need that oil first. So that I believe that what Congress is going to do also is not to allow the export bans to such a degree that it’s Americans who get stuck holding the bag without the energy source that is produced here, pumped here…it’s got to flow into the domestic markets first. “
My god. What century are we in? From Kevin Myles, the president of the Wichita Branch of the NAACP, we learn that Mell Kuhn, the mayor of Arkansas City Kansas, appeared in blackface drag at a Court Appointed Special Advocates annual fundraiser called Men in Tights. Kuhn’s obviously an aspiring Shirley Q. Liquor (with just as much class).
Yesterday morning, when I learned about the Mayor’s weekend performance I placed a call to City Hall in Ark City and requested a meeting with Mayor Kuhn. Mayor Kuhn returned my call a little after noon and offered to come to Wichita to meet that evening.
I was joined in the meeting by branch members Dr. Maaskela Thomas and Paulette Goines who added some clear and critical perspective.
Now to be clear, our intent was not to offer absolution; we would not be “Al Sharpton” to his “Don Imus”. Rather, I requested the meeting with the modest goals of making accessible to the Mayor the level of offense and outrage his performance had engendered, and to impress upon the Mayor our perspective that this performance, when viewed with other key indicators, appears to be emblematic of a larger problem and perspective gap.
These issues were highlighted by an interview that appeared in the online version of the Ark City Traveler newspaper in which the Mayor reportedly said, “I don’t give a damn what people think. It’s a bunch of bullshit” and later remarked, “All this PC is bullshit”.
Kevin Myles met with Kuhn, and pointed out the obvious problems with this award-winning performance.
*We discussed the fact that the town of Ark City has never had African American department head in its 130 history. *We also discussed the fact that the town’s Human Relations Committee was recently downsized from a 20 member board to 5 members, shifted from monthly meetings to quarterly meetings, and was completely de-funded. *And yes, we discussed the fact that he could appear in blackface at a banquet before a cheering crowd, and actually win a trophy for his performance…
...We directly challenged the notions and arguments of equivalency, and Mayor Kuhn seemed to understand and accept the fact that he had done something that truly warranted a public apology. In response, Mayor Kuhn offered this statement:
“It has been brought to my attention how offensive this was and I absolutely agree that it was shortsighted of me not to see that in the first place. I am sincerely sorry and I sincerely apologize for the offensive nature of my actions. This was not CASA, this was of my own volition, and I take full responsibility for my actions. The buck absolutely stops here”. - Mayor Mell H. Kuhn
Kevin also noted that working through the issue of race in Arkansas City will be, to put it mildly, a “work in progress.” Something tells me trans or gender ID issues aren’t even on the radar.
Why do the disgraced rabid dogs of the GOP continue to cock their legs and piss on the political discourse when they have zero credibility? George “Macaca” Allen has no shame, as he pimps the “Drill, baby, drill” meme into the ground with an assertion that the call for drilling is an expression of Americans’ desire to be free - and those with a different point of view are “elitist.”
ALLEN: I love that statement, America is addicted to oil. What an elitist point of view. Americans are not addicted to oil. Americans are addicted to freedom — the freedom and liberty to move where and when we want.
Actually, isn’t it the opposite? This incessant call to dedicate money and time to finding more fossil fuels ahead of a concerted effort to develop alternative sources of energy sounds more like Allen and McCain/Palin want us shackled to Big Oil as if this is a sane energy strategy.
Besides, the glorious Dear Leader has said that “America is addicted to oil. I guess Macaca forgot about that bit of business.
And the pigs are flying. You good residents down there in Georgia—send some the Klan robes over to Rep. Lynn Westmoreland’s office. On Thursday, it was reported that he said this:
“Just from what little I’ve seen of her [Michelle] and Mr. Obama, Sen. Obama, they’re a member of an elitist-class individual that thinks that they’re uppity,” Westmoreland said. Asked to clarify that he used the word “uppity,” Westmoreland said, “Uppity, yeah.
“He stands by that characterization and thinks it accurately describes the Democratic nominee,” said Brian Robinson, Westmoreland’s spokesman. “He was unaware that the word had racial overtones and he had absolutely no intention of using a word that can be considered offensive.”
This man is a liar. Westmoreland knew exactly what he said; and it isn’t surprising coming from a man who opposed renewing the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The WaPo’s Jonathan Weisman is more polite, but agrees:
Having grown up in Atlanta, very near where Rep. Lynn Westmoreland grew up, I can say pretty unequivocally that there is no way a native Georgian could not have known the racial context of that word. Georgia in the 60s and 70s was a study in black and white (it’s much more diverse now), and racial subtexts were everywhere. I do not buy his defense.
Dog whistles no more as we head down the home stretch…
As a North Carolina native, I have to patiently endure regional bigotry from those outside the region who think the South is full of ignorant, toothless, uneducated hillbillies who drive down the highway tossing beer cans out of the window and burn crosses on the weekends for entertainment.
Of course the “wisdom” of political consultant Dave “Mudcat” Saunders makes my job even harder. His “redneck for hire” schtick—sold to pols (like failed presidential candidate John Edwards) who want to get to know Mudcat’s demographic—pay handsomely for this advice to Barack Obama:
The nominee’s difficulties are not about the colour of his skin but the tin in his ear. “White people in the South and throughout the Appalachians love black culture. I mean, Southern-style cooking is black food. Everything I eat is fried. Your swing vote in the Appalachians comes down to common-sense thinking people who have strong faith, and what Barack Obama needs to do is embrace his culture. Because we like his culture. But nobody knows anything about him; over 10 per cent of the rednecks out here — and I’m a redneck — think he’s a Muslim ‘cause nobody’s ever told ‘em any different.”
No, those folks have been “told different” and they stubbornly still believe he’s a Muslim. Sorry, Mudcat, it’s a weasely way of being uncomfortable about Obama’s “difference” without saying it’s racism (and it’s not just a southern thing - remember that woman in Ohio who insisted Obama will “revert to his Muslim and “Arab tendencies.”) .
And as if to prove my point, Mudcat reveals an aspect of Southern culture that he holds in high esteem by showing us his bedroom and the covers he slips between at night:
After the anti-gay debacle of the “South Carolina is so gay” ad, you’d think the bumf*ck politicians would want to stay beneath the radar, but no…
Look at what is on the blog of State Senator Kevin L. Bryant of South Carolina. He says that his posts are normally comments you won’t see in the news. You’ve got that right, Bryant:
On marriage, Bryant is where you’d expect:
Bryant will support legislation and or a Constitutional Amendment defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman. The basic institution of humanity is under attack by the extreme left and Bryant will stand firm.
I guess you will not be surprised that Bryant is a member of the NRA, National Right To Life, the Christian Coalition, Concerned Women for America, the Palmetto Family Council and the S.C. Policy Council.
A news segment from Bill Moyers’ Journal on PBS this past week exposed how poultry workers in the Carolinas are losing their body parts. And, how Bush’s administration had a hand in it.
The segment was based on what reporters from the Charlotte Observer found after launching a year-long investigation into the safety records at one of the top ten poultry corporations in the nation: House of Raeford Farms. In a 6-part news series called, “The Cruelest Cut,” reporters exposed how House of Raeford Farms had failed to keep records of worker injuries to avoid OSHA inspections and fines. Injuries such as loss of fingers, hands, arms, other serious injuries workers suffered, even deaths.
...The workers, most of them immigrants, had been afraid of talking to anyone about what was happening because they feared deportation. These workers were also suffering from serious muscular injuries such as carpel tunnel, tendinitis, etc. The average poultry worker does about 20,000 cuts of chicken a day! The repetitive movements have left many of them disabled and unable to work with their hands again.
It’s shameful, and this goes on with the Bush Administration’s facilitation. You can read the entire Charlotte Observer expose here, and you can see video from the Moyers’ report and the transcript here. A snippet of a portion on the Bush Administration’s role in allowing falsification of injury reports by business is below the fold.
Gareth Fenley of Q-Notes has an explosive report on the backstory of the deep-sixing of a South Carolina ad campaign that targeted the gay travel market.
Governor Mark Sanford, another pol doing his own bit of marketing—he’s angling to be John McCain’s VP to bolster support from social conservatives—personally intervened to “correct” any notion his state was tolerant or welcoming of LGBT dollars:
When South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford learned that his state was being advertised as a gay tourism destination, he ordered a Cabinet-level department head “to do the right thing personnel-wise or process-wise to ensure this does not happen again,” Sanford’s spokesman Joel Sawyer told Q-Notes.
...A state employee who approved the ads was called to a meeting with management and resigned, according to Marion Edmonds, spokesman for the state’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism (PRT).
If the employee broke any rule in the conduct of her job, it was apparently an unwritten one.
Well, of course it’s an unwritten one. South Carolina is one of the most homophobic states in the country, and it has shown its ass yet again with the reaction the ad received from state officials who were horrified that unsuspecting
European homosexuals
might get on a plane and spend some money in the Palmetto State.
While it’s a positive sign that someone in the state of South Carolina thought it was a good idea to attract gay tourism dollars—in this case an ad campaign that was tied to gay pride festivities in London—you still have to wonder what were they thinking.
This kind of pro-gay public position is a no-brainer for Atlanta, Boston, and New Orleans— cities that participated in the campaign—but SC has a severe case of homophobia woven into too many of its institutions. I couldn’t imagine officials letting this kind of positive outreach fly under the radar without blowback.
After learning last week the state had agreed to spend tax money on the campaign — and spurred by a post on The Palmetto Scoop blog — the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism said Thursday it would not pay the tour operator.
Parks, Recreation and Tourism director Chad Prosser said an agency advertising manager signed off on the contract, proposed by the agency’s London advertising contractor.
The rest of the article puts the issue into focus—it was an overseas contractor who came up with the piece (and who apparently doesn’t know the depth of homophobia in SC’s government); this marketing person actually put out a press release in the name of the state’s tourism agency—“we think people may be surprised to see our destination reaching out to the gay market.”
The folks back in SC were surprised all right, and the reaction was swift, predictable and elicited over-the-top panic that the state might be perceived as welcoming of gay tourists.
The agency is reviewing how, if at all, to discipline the employees who signed off on the program.
Some lawmakers were shocked to learn about the campaign, with state Sen. David Thomas, R-Greenville, calling for an audit.
Joel Sawyer, spokesman for Gov. Mark Sanford, said using tax money to support a social or political agenda is inappropriate. “Our state tourism dollars should be talking about the beaches and attractions of South Carolina,” Sawyer said.
Jesse Helms has died. As a native and current resident of North Carolina, even today many people I run into outside of this state who know little about it—recognize the name Jesse Helms. He leaves a long, dark trail of professional racial bigotry (he opposed the MLK national holiday, and civil rights legislation) and homophobia (that list is so long, you don’t know where to begin).
Former U.S. Sen. Jesse A. Helms, the son of a Monroe police chief who rose to national prominence as one of the leading lions of the American right, died early this morning. He was 86.
During a political career that began with his election to the Raleigh City Council in the late 1950s and included 30 years in the U.S. Senate, Jesse Alexander Helms endeared himself to conservatives throughout the country.
Helms became known as “Senator No” for his constant battles against everything from increased government spending to civil rights legislation to communism to the National Endowment for the Arts.
I viewed the late Senator many a time when he was a commentator on WRAL. For me, as a young child of color, his blunt, unforgiving, unacceptable views were distressing and surreal to watch.
Here are some quaint quotes from the former U.S. Senator, collected by the Raleigh N&O, which also has a timeline of his career:
“Unless our Negro citizens submit more easily than we predict they will, North Carolina does not have the simple choice between segregated schools and integrated schools. Our only choice is between integrated public schools and free-choice private schools. … The decision will have been made by a very small minority of people who are hell-bent on forced integration.”“
“To rob the Negro of his reputation of thinking through a problem in his own fashion is about the same as trying to pretend that he doesn’t have a natural instinct for rhythm and for singing and dancing.” - Helms responding in 1956 to criticism that a fictional black character in his newspaper column was offensive.
“I shall always remember the shady streets, the quiet Sundays, the cotton wagons, the Fourth of July parades, the New Year’s Eve firecrackers. I shall never forget the stream of school kids marching uptown to place flowers on the Courthouse Square monument on Confederate Memorial Day.” - Helms writing in 1956 on life in his hometown of Monroe, N.C.
His infamous “Hands” ad, which he ran during his re-election bid in 1990 against Charlotte mayor Harvey Gantt, (who is black); Gantt led in the polls until this aired:
McCain’s VP short-lister continues the march to turn back the hands of time—and enhance his fundnut cred—by supporting a Louisiana bill that will advance intelligent design. (Talk2Action):
The stealth-creationist SB 733, the “Louisiana Science Education Act,” which in its pre-amended version as SB 561 was entitled the “LA Academic Freedom Act,” received final passage in the Louisiana legislature on June 16, 2008, and is now (June 26) on Gov. Bobby Jindal’s desk. The governor can either sign it, allow it to become law without his signature, or veto it. Gov. Jindal, who in his June 15 appearance on Face the Nation reiterated his previously voiced support for teaching intelligent design (ID) creationism, is expected to sign the bill. At the behest of the LA Coalition for Science, e-mail petitioners from across the country and national scientific organizations have urged him to veto it. Both the New York Times and National Review columnist John Derbyshire have also publicly called for Jindal to veto the bill. Since Louisiana’s passage of SB 733 could be a bellwether for such “academic freedom” legislation, advocates for science education and church-and-state separation in other states had better start preparing now.
The bill was introduced by winger Sen. Ben Nevers (Bogalusa, LA) on behalf of an arm of Focus on the Anus called the Louisiana Family Forum (LFF):
It is probably not an exaggeration to say that the majority of Louisiana legislators support the LFF’s agenda, and that those who do not support it have had the “fear of the Lord” put into them, knowing what they will face politically in the next election if they cross the LFF. One very telling piece of evidence for this is the fact that
not a single Louisiana public official anywhere in the state, either elected or appointed, has so far been willing to speak out against SB 733 and in favor of good science education
. When Louisiana scientists and educators from public schools and universities testified against SB 733 before both the House and Senate Education Committees, they had no vocal defenders on either committee and were virtually ignored during the periods in which legislators were allowed to question the witnesses. (Three House members, one of whom was on the House Education Committee, later voted against the bill on the House floor but offered no statements or questions during the vote.)
At the New Bern Convention Center, as the festivities and business begin. Ninety-four counties out of 100 were represented at the convention.
I was in New Bern, NC on Saturday for the North Carolina Democratic Party State Convention. Of course I know that most Pandagon readers won’t find this post scintillating, but I wanted to attend the state convention because 1) it is a landmark presidential election; 2) it’s a way to see democracy in action, as well as my state’s inner party workings; and 3) it’s a micro-version of what I will experience covering the national convention in Denver as a credentialed blog. The reason I’m posting here is to give you an idea of how fitting bloggers into the mix is clearly presents a learning curve for the state party.
To start off, one bit of interesting business was that when I arrived, there wasn’t a clear way to obtain press credentials. Actually, there wasn’t any formal system at all to identify media that I could see. Thank goodness for blogmistress planning, as I had made up a “press badge” (L) before leaving home just in case.
When I entered the convention hall itself, there wasn’t any set up area for the press to work (no tables or chairs in a convenient location to cover the activities). I fortunately ran into Jerimee Richer (R), who is director of online communications for the North Carolina Democratic Party. He quickly found the facilities coordinator for the center while I went out into the public area to check out the candidate and merchandise tables in the hall. When I came back about 10 minutes later, there was a table set up on the left side of the hall, convenient to power and a great view. You can’t ask for better blogger accommodation than that. So far it’s still not clear the DNCC will be on the ball regarding blogger access or accommodations. (One alarm is already going off—we still haven’t heard about where we’ll be staying, and there isn’t clarity over whether a credential allows one person at a time on the floor of the convention or even in the entire hall—that’s a big difference in terms of access).
Anyway, you can read the rest of the post at my pad, but I wanted to share one
incredibly hysterical incident
that occurred during the resolutions debate—it’s below the fold.
My god. What century are we in? From Kevin Myles, the president of the Wichita Branch of the NAACP, we learn that Mell Kuhn, the mayor of Arkansas City Kansas,
And the pigs are flying. You good residents down there in Georgia—send some the Klan robes over to Rep. Lynn Westmoreland’s office. On Thursday, it was reported that he 
Gareth Fenley of Q-Notes has an 
To start off, one bit of interesting business was that when I arrived, there wasn’t a clear way to obtain press credentials. Actually, there wasn’t any formal system at all to identify media that I could see. Thank goodness for blogmistress planning, as I had made up a “press badge” (L) before leaving home just in case.